“In the beginning was the Word…” — John 1:1
Or, maybe this.
“In the beginning were WORDS!” People will “jump off bridges” on account of a few discouraging words. Doesn’t that disprove the old saying, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but WORDS will never hurt me?” Words are seeds; watch them grow into beautiful flowers,…or deadly poisons. The thing is; once these lies are disseminated, people cop a position and refuse to ever admit they were fooled.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/capt-randall/polls-haha/ [Edited slightly]
Holy cow! Isn’t that the truth? People will not, absolutely will not, admit that they were fooled. Fooled on everything. Fooled on everything they have ever believed to be true. Fooled because they bought into a lie. Fooled because they really thought they had all the answers and that their own “word”, independently arrived at, had more value than The Word.
Fooled like Eve, who took the first off ramp from the clear truth as soon as it was offered to her. “Has God said…?” “Yes, but…” So typical.
But. It is always that word. But. It asserts that there is a conflict between what has already been spoken and the subjectively recognized version of “reality”. We disparage Eve for what she did (and Adam for being a weak man who gave into his woman), yet we refuse to confess that we would have done the same if we had been there. We still do, although we try our best to forget (or conveniently do not remember) those instances when we gave into the same impulse.
But…
Why is it so hard for people to admit they have been wrong? To admit that they don’t know everything? To admit that they are complete fools for buying into The Lie? Is it not because we are like Eve, who only wanted to assert her own word over the Word which had been given to her? Eve’s decision, like that of all independently minded persons everywhere, had consequences which have reverberated down through the history of humanity, to the detriment of all humanity…forever.
Why is it so hard for me to admit that I have been wrong? Is it not because I want to decide for myself what is true? What is right? What is best? Why should I (and all those who follow me) be punished because I only wanted to improve my situation? Because I simply could not tolerate that there was a Chain of Command to which I was accountable?
Because I can not admit that I am nothing at all?
Fooled! Oh, yes, I have to admit that I have been fooled, that I have bought into the lie, that I “thought more highly of myself than I ought to.” (Romans 12:3) That I really believed I was something and that everyone and everything should pay attention to me. Me. Me. Me. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?
This has to change.
Finally, after nearly sixty-seven years of life, I am starting to realize that I have been fooling myself and I only have a few more years, perhaps less, to correct my course. There is no word except the Word, and this can be condensed and understood in just a few words: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
So simple. So freeing. So difficult. So difficult. So difficult, yet I am determined to walk that path.
Poor Roger's Almanac 
Roger, I am finding that the lack of self-reflection is the biggest roadblock to our growing more like Christ. I think it is the flip side of pride. In other words, self-reflection = humility; a lack of self-reflection = pride.
Humility is necessary in order to grow into any Christian virtues. It is pasted throughout the Beatitudes. It takes humility to admit one is wrong. But to come to this point, one must be willing to suffer self-reflection.
I, like you, am exceedingly glad that God, in His mercy, has given me life long enough to recognize this. I, like you, find it tremendously difficult – even though we have been given the complete instruction manual.